By: Serenity Pearlman
Hiking, , , ,

Hiking and Climbing Barranco San Miguel

Vol.19

Quick Facts

Fun meter: Great with friends
Location: Telde, Gran Canaria
Adventure: Hike
Type: Canyon
Time: 2-4 hours
Level of difficulty: Not a ton of up and down but it can be tricky with the small rocks.
Good for what ages: All Ages if you like hiking.
Cost: free
Hint: You can walk one way, all downhill if you coordinate with friends, and leave one car at the bottom and one at the top.

Overview

The Barranco de San Miguel trail just opened a few weeks ago. Barranco means canyon. It used to be full of cactuses and trash but not anymore. We could see the tractor tracks from where they cleared out the yucky spots. This is a canyon hike and it’s fun how deep down we get in nature right in the city. My friends Lisette and Elena walked up the trail and joined us at the top and we did the downhill together. We saw tiny caves, beautiful plants, giant cliffs on both sides, horses, bike riders, dogs and a really cool climbing area. It took us about two hours with a lot of stops.

How To Get There

Jump in the car and head to Telde. Put the “Tunel de Tara” into your GPS if you want to start at the bottom. It is a point-to-point walk so you can go as far as you want and turn around. If you have multiple cars, you could leave one at the tunnel and then drive up to the current top of the trail. They are still working on it and soon it should connect to the waterfall trail. The drive up to the top is made up of small one-lane country roads. Drive very carefully.

Our Photoshoot

When dad first said that we were going to hike with my friends I thought that we were going to go up and down a lot, so I was surprised when it was actually pretty level. Elena went ahead with the parents while Lisette and I stayed behind and took a lot of cool photos. We took one reaching into a dark small cave we found but it was very dark so we did not go in very far. We also took some where I would go into a small bunch of plants and pictures in it.

Walking the Canyon

The cliffs went sooooo far up that we had to put our heads directly up to see the top. Sometimes the trail is wide and others so narrow we had to walk single file. The ground has lots of rocks on it of all sizes.

Bikers and Horses and Dogs oh My

All kinds of people use the new trail. We climbed on a BIG rock and a bunch of riders on horses came through. While climbing the rock, Lisette hurt her leg and it was bleeding. Later some mountain bikers passed us. Like 5 of them. And they are going fast! There was also a woman and a very cute dog. It was a pretty busy trail but we still felt like we were alone most of the time.

The Climbing Wall

Towards the end of the hike, the Tara tunel is covered in climbing holds. Elena, Lisette and I climbed on the lowest part until the parents got too nervous. On the side of the climbing wall there were walls covered in graffiti. While we played, a few guys were climbing with ropes and were hanging upside down from the roof of the tunnel. It was cool to watch.